


The Void's Embrace

by Jaydee_Faire



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Nightmare Imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28627839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaydee_Faire/pseuds/Jaydee_Faire
Summary: Zagreus offers a gift to Chaos and gets more than he bargained for in return.
Relationships: Zagreus/Chaos
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	The Void's Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> Chaos is canonically nonbinary/agender but there's no ship tag for that, and they're vaguely AMAB-shaped, so I just went with M/M.

Zagreus stumbled forward, the constant wailing of the shades in his father's realm coming so abruptly to a halt that it left his ears ringing.

The air was cooler here compared to the cramped stuffiness of Tartarus, the stink of dust and ashes replaced with a faint metallic smell that stuck on the back of his tongue. He stood on a tiny island in a sea of darkness so vast that it strained the eye, and it was much easier to bring his focus down to the broken white pillars, the little collection of urns, and the twisting, pulsating aura of the figure he'd come here to see.

"Master Chaos," Zagreus said. 

He meant to say more, had thought of himself saying more, but now that he was here he found all his rehearsed speeches dying on his tongue. Instead, wordlessly, he offered the bottle of nectar he'd been carrying, warm from how long he'd cradled it in the palm of his hand. 

Chaos looked down at him-- they were huge, nearly twice his height-- and Zagreus shuddered as he felt the full attention of a being accustomed to gazing across time and space and possibility fall solely onto him. _"Son of Hades,"_ they said. _"You cannot know what it is you offer me, nor could you have fathomed what you might receive in return. Yet you have come here intending something that even I could not have forseen."_

"Yes, well," Zagreus chuckled nervously, "that's sort of your thing, isn't it?"

_"I had not asked you to respond."_

Zagreus was only able to sputter out a surprised "I--" before Chaos came abruptly forward. 

He wasn't sure if they had become smaller, or he had become larger, but they did not have to stoop to put their mouth to his. It was like being kissed by the heart of a star, an agonizing, scorching heat that burned away his skin and crackled down his throat and into his lungs. He brought his hands up, fingers spasming, trying to push himself away, but the instant his fingertips touched the pale expanse of Chaos's chest, they vanished into it as if there were nothing there at all. 

He was finally able to break away, gasping and then gagging on something caught in his throat. A creeping vine burst from his mouth, flailing wildly in search of something to coil around, flowers exploding into bloom along its length and then wilting away in the same moment. He was buried inside Chaos's body up to his forearms, then his elbows, and when they finally met chest to chest, Zagreus looked up into their face to try to plead for mercy or forgiveness or death. 

In the instant before he was pulled in, he looked into their eyes and saw--

He was surrounded on all sides, unable to move; the emptiness around him was so absolute that there was nothing to keep him inside of his skin. He fell, tumbling end over end, praying for the finality of smashing into the earth if only to know for certain which way was up. He heard a hundred voices-- a thousand calling to him, to each other, to the gods.

Someone grabbed his hand. It was his sister, his mother, his father, a stranger, a monster. He finally got the breath to scream, opening his mouth and letting it fill with water that tasted of copper. He was lifted up-- soaked and dripping-- and deposited onto something that rocked and creaked with his weight. _A cradle,_ he thought, closing his eyes, then, _I'm dreaming. Mother will come soon to wake me, and everything will be alright._

Then he heard a familiar gurgling groan, and Charon prodded him with an oar.

Zagreus raised himself up onto his elbows, then abruptly flung himself halfway over the edge of the ferry, retching into the water. An obol fell from his lips and plunked into the water, along with everything he'd eaten in the last few hours. Behind him, Charon growled again in disapproval or disgust, it was hard to tell which.

"Charon, mate," Zagreus panted as he settled back into the bottom of the ferry. "Always glad to see you."

Charon made some sort of response, dipping his oar into the water again to move them along. "Oh you know, the same old story, getting into places and troubles that it's difficult to get out of again," Zagreus replied, laughing shakily. "It's a good thing you came along, or who knows how long of a walk home I'd have had."

The ferryman glanced over his shoulder, hissing a question.

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind," Zagreus said, laying back. "I think I'd like to go home."

**Author's Note:**

> Visit my carrd to find out how you can toss a bottle of ambrosia my way, if you can.
> 
> Jaydeefaire.carrd.co


End file.
